Jonasson withdraws from election race

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This article was published 25/09/2015 (3691 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Stefan Jonasson, who was nominated as NDP candidate for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley, stated that he’s withdrawn from the election race.

In a posting on his Facebook page made late on Sept. 24, Jonasson said, “Early Thursday, a malicious blog known as ‘The True North Times’ published a post about me with a wilfully misleading and inflammatory headline,” Jonasson wrote, referring to a 2012 Facebook post in which Jonasson criticized an orthodox branch of Judaism, the Haredim, for its treatment of women. In the post, Jonasson compared the sect’s actions to that of the Taliban.

“A model of gutter journalism, this blog ridiculed some of my past social media posts and sought to create the false impression that I had offered a general indictment of Jewish people when, in fact, I was criticizing the misogynistic behaviour of a particular group of dogmatic believers,” Jonasson’s post said.

“A senior party official called me and intimated that I should withdraw as a candidate. I have complied with his request and resigned as the party’s candidate in Charleswood–St. James–Assiniboia–Headingley.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

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The race for the Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley is now between Green Party of Canada candidate Kevin Nichols, Conservative incumbent Steven Fletcher, and Liberal candidate Doug Eyolfson.

— Staff